Exclusive Interview: Steve Stark

Steve Stark, the executive producer of NBC’s new conspiracy thriller, The Event, actually kept the script for its pilot in his desk drawer for more than two years, just waiting for the right moment to pitch this high-concept show. His patience paid off. The Event was the first pilot NBC picked up for this season. The drama focuses on Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) an ordinary guy who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his would-be fiancée, Leila (Sarah Roemer) and unwittingly begins to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history. The Event, which also stars Blair Underwood and Laura Innes, has been averaging some 9 million viewers in its 9 p.m. Monday night time slot, deemed good enough by NBC to order a full-season pickup.

Besides serving as executive producer on The Event, Stark is also executive producer of Medium, now in season seven on CBS, and has recently completed production on a character procedural for USA Network called Fairly Legal, which will premiere in January. Before setting up his own production company, Steve Stark Productions, two years ago, Stark was a partner of Kelsey Grammer in Grammnet Productions and had previously held senior-level executive positions at Columbia Tri-Star Network Television and at Paramount Network Television, where he oversaw more than 1,300 episodes of such series as Frasier, Cheers, J.A.G., Becker, and Nash Bridges.

WS: How did The Event come about?
STARK: Four or five years ago, a young writer named Nick Wauters, had written and an episode of Medium. After that he wrote a script called The Event. I read it and thought it was quite a page-turner, especially for a show that deals with a fractured narrative as this one does. Often times it’s confusing, [difficult] to follow, and you’re [left wondering], Who’s that character? Not with this script, it was just one of those things, it was just a page-turner. We tried to take it out and sell it, there were some people interested in it, ultimately they liked the script, but it was too big of an idea, too unusual of a concept and we didn’t sell it. So it sat in Nick’s drawer and in my drawer for a long time and we just kept thinking about it.

About two years ago, I came to him and said, let’s make this as a feature, let’s turn this into a movie because it’s a great opening, it had a great ending, but neither one of us had time, he was busy, I was busy and it fell sort of fell apart and went by the wayside.

Then last October I had developed a different project for NBC, it was a cop drama with a little supernatural twist to it. They called me and said, “We’re not going to make that; we’re going to do another procedural cop show.” As they were hanging up the phone I said, “Wait a minute, what else are you looking for?” And they said, “No, we’re done, we bought [what we needed] for the season we’re not buying anything else. But the one thing we haven’t found that we were looking for was a big event idea.” I said, “Let me ask you to read this one script. It will be one of the best scripts you’ve ever read, but it’s a big serialized drama. So if you’re not interested in that, don’t waste your time, but it’s a big, big idea.” Within two days we were in negotiations with NBC. It was the last script they bought for the season and it was the first pilot they picked up.

It was a wonderful development process as well because we redeveloped the show. If you’ve seen the show, it plays very much as a global conspiracy thriller and at the end there is this weird little twist, a weird little surprise. And that was part of this last development process. We thought, let’s figure out a way to shift it around and shock everybody. So we developed a whole mythology based on this little element that happens outside the normal realm of human understanding, something that is unusual. And [regarding] the mythology we had built before NBC picked the pilot up to series, they asked, Where is it going? So Nick and I developed very long-running tentpole arcs of where the series is going to go, how it’s going to pay off and how it’s going to work on an emotional and structural level.

We did the pilot, we were very happy with how the pilot came out and then we hired Evan Katz, who was the showrunner for 24, to come on board and be the showrunner for the series.

Like any good story, we have a very nice path, but the show has evolved and we’re finding new ways to tell the stories and new discoveries as we are telling it. Evan has come in and we have delivered, much like 24 does, an emotional thrill ride in every episode, with this over-arching mythology.

WS: When NBC picked up the pilot did you already have an idea of how the series would play out?
STARK: Yes, we had a very good idea where it was going to go and we are still on that same path. There are things that we are finding, discoveries along the way: this is a better way to tell the story, let’s surprise here, let’s hold that back for a while. It’s that push-pull always of how much to reveal, how much to share and not frustrate the viewers by not giving them information, but holding enough back and giving them more clues and mysteries to follow.

WS: How were you able to assemble such a great cast?
STARK: We have this crazy derby in Hollywood where all the pilots cast at the same time so we are all competing for the same people. It’s sort of a silly system. With the benefit of being the first pilot picked up, we got a jumpstart on everybody. So we were able to start casting quickly. Everyone who read the script responded because we had a lot of great actors wanting to be on the show. Jason Ritter [who plays Sean Walker] was the only actor who came in and I never gave a note to, he just got it; and [his role is] atypical in a sense, it’s not the typical action hero star, he’s a very vulnerable nice guy, boy next door, and that’s what we loved about him, he’s so appealing. The point when the show grabs you, at least for me, is when he loses his girlfriend at the hotel front desk. It’s an interesting show, but when that happens, it’s, Oh my God! That’s the moment, I think, that’s the scene that made the series get picked up, because he is so good at it. He’s a fantastic choice.

Blair Underwood was a suggestion from our casting people. The role had always been written as a Hispanic president. We were going down that path but never found the person that we thought was the right person to play the president. Our casting people had suggested Blair and we said that’s a really good idea. We wanted to keep the Hispanic element because there is a thematic character piece that plays into him being Afro-Cuban. And ultimately, he came in, we told him the story, he loved it and he got the role. The role Laura Innes plays of the mysterious detainee was originally written for a man. We said let’s just look wide for this, let’s see who might be interesting outside this as a guy. She came in and we said, that’s who the character should be. We loved the whole maternal mysterious interesting not so on-the-nose [quality] she was very, very good. Željko Ivanek, a brilliant actor, a very talented guy, came in, read the role once. Before he walked out we said maybe we should just give the role to him. Sarah Roemer, a relatively new actress who plays Leila, was in a movie called Disturbia. She is very raw, very earthy, beautiful empathetic. Jeff Reiner, who is our director and executive producer directed Friday Night Lights, saw a raw wonderful quality in her much as he saw in the cast of Friday Night Lights. We had her in with Jason and it was just magical, perfect. And finally Ian Anthony Dale,Jeff had worked with him on Trauma, the last series he did, and loved him. So all the actors fell into place very easily.

WS: You were able to get actors for the pilot despite the fact that other networks were also looking for talent for their pilots. Was that due to relationships you had with actors or was it due to the strength of the script?
STARK: I think it was just that they read the script and said, “This is special, this is unique and I’ve never seen it before.” Jason said he had stacks of pilots, he read The Event and said this is the one I want, I don’t want to read any more. We were so happy he threw the other scripts away! Yes, I think it was the [strength of the] material.

WS: The Event sold very well among international broadcasters. What appeal does it have for viewers from other countries?
STARK: I think more than anything it’s distinctive. There are a lot of procedurals, there are lot of shows that are very good and have a lot of quality, are well cast and well produced, but this was the only one that stood out in a unique way, and that is the main reason [for its appeal]. I also think that it’s an interactive show. The challenge is [as a viewer] you have to be part of it, you have to think about it; it’s the puzzle of it. The more we can do that the more you are invested in that show, which is why I think everybody gets emotionally hooked to it.

WS: You are working on another show as well.
STARK: We just finished shooting my USA Network show called Fairly Legal. It’s one of USA’s first shows that is not the run and jump, gun, chase action show. It’s a character procedural [starring] Sarah Shahi who plays a legal mediator. And what’s fascinating about the show is if you and I have a conflict, we have our attorneys who [argue the case in a courtroom before a judge.

In mediation it’s us [you and I who have the dispute and a mediator assists in solving it]. The drama is on the surface, it’s right there, and Sarah Shahi [the actress who plays Kate Reed, the mediator] is in the middle of it. The trick of the show has been peeling away the layers of that mystery in each case. If you and I have a dispute, it may be that you hate my barking dog, but that’s not really the issue. The issue is something else that Sarah ultimately uncovers. We deal with great themes. One of the episodes we are doing is about a guy who had been falsely imprisoned for the last 20 years for a robbery conviction and she has to come in and mediate between the city and him. And it uncovers big issues, like what is the value of a life. And so we deal with those big themes, but it’s done in a USA way with emotion, but a lot of humor and fun. It’s been a really great experience.